two down
6x04 The Doctor's Wife
Well now. Second in the series of Episodes of Last Month, The Doctor’s Wife. A very fun episode written by Tim Burton. Or Neil Gaiman? One of them. Wait, let’s see, there WAS Helena Bonham Carter. But no Johnny Depp. So I think it was Gaiman.
Maggots.
Where are the maggots?
Eh, the Tim Burton joke looked funny in my head. Anyway, what we have here, is a thoroughly fantastic concept. The TARDIS talking. We’ve been watching the adventures of the man and the box for almost fifty years and now we finally get to hear the box’s take on them. Neil Gaiman practically redefined the relationship of Doctor and TARDIS.
First, he made her a she. I mean, she’s always been a she. Or something. But mostly she was an it. She definitely started out as an it, and her itness was still lingering about, despite all the redesigning of her as a living thing and the Doctor basically treating her as a living person. And now we’ve actually heard her talk and know she’s not only sentient, not even only knowing what’s going on around her, but has been an active protagonist all along. And she looks sorta like Helena Bonham Carter.
The thing is, her style was in fact very appropriate. Her gothic outfit seemed to match the Doctor’s vintage tweeds in outlandishness. And the TARDIS trying to focus on one moment in the space-time continuum was not only clever but absolutely hilarious. And somewhat spoilery, of course.
And even without maggots, it was obviously a Neil Gaiman production, just by looking at the sets. The junkyard. In 1963 we first met the TARDIS in a junkyard. In 2011 we first heard the TARDIS speak in another. But this junkyard is a lot more bizarre. A junkyard outside the universe, in the middle of nothing, a junkyard that turns out to be a cemetery of TARDISes. And there’s Uncle, Aunt and Nephew. This episode being centred on the TARDIS talking, I think we’d even have accepted a couple of guinea pigs or a folding chair as side characters, but instead, we got some quite intriguing ones.
First of all, Nephew. An Ood. An actual Ood. An Ood with green eyes! OK, it was probably the House’s mind control or whatever, but Ood look awesome with green eyes. Worse than red, that eerie green glow. I wonder whether he was there because Gaiman loved the Ood or this is supposed to be part of some grand design?
Next up, Aunt and Uncle. I thought they were brilliant. Yes, they were a couple of Igors, but they were very amusing Igors.
This crazy little team, the green-eyed Ood, the Igors and the goth girl in the junkyard in the middle of nothing all made the episode’s atmosphere feel a lot more fantasy than shiny sci-fi. Eldritch fantasy, if you catch my drift. Something ancient, dangerous and bodiless is hunting for TARDISes and has been for millenia, perhaps eons. Sure, a talking asteroid. Have you seen it? We’ve seen an ominous green glow and heard a voice speaking through others. We’ve seen its manservant being an Ood, a creature that debuted as the servant of another ancient threat, the Devil itself. We’re getting glimpses of Time Lords, the Big Damn Ancient Wise-men, being lured there by the House and killed and chopped up and distributed to the Igors.
And he steals the TARDIS.
Which is another major thing in the history of Doctor Who. The TARDIS is the safe point. The haven. The shelter. The universal police box symbolising order. And the ordinary. Actors change, sets change, companions change, but the TARDIS is constant. Fifty years ago the TARDIS was a safe point in any strange and scary story because it was a police box, now it’s because it’s the TARDIS. Moffat makes ordinary objects seem scary and extraordinary. Gaiman makes the most ordinary and safe thing in the history of Doctor Who scary and perilous. Here’s someone who knows what makes Doctor Who tick.
I’m afraid I’m done with Acting As If I Knew What’s Going on in Doctor Who, so here’s the trivia part.
Neil Gaiman is a fangirl. Proven. Such a fangirl. He’s just canonised Doctor/TARDIS. Next time I see a fanfiction with the Doctor having sex with the TARDIS, I can say, ‘Thank you, Neil.’ Not like fangirls hadn’t written such fanfictions before, but it’s nice to have a scapegoat.
In case you’re not quite convinced he’s a fangirl: the pretty one?
Talking about the companions. Nice chase scene. The pointlessness made it remarkable. For fun, sir. Though there was this one thing... no, not Rory not dying again, I’ve already presented my views on the issue in my last scribble, but the mind tricks. OK, well, it is about Rory dying in a way. You know, all along, Rory keeps telling the House is messing with their heads, but in fact, we don’t see him messing with Rory’s head much, do we? It’s all about Amy. Amy’s the one who gets to see Rory going insane and dying, the corridors go dark for Amy, Amy is being tricked into following a voice that’s not Rory’s. And something else I appear to have forgotten. We don’t see the House messing with Rory. Except for the first waiting-for-Amy-for-hours instance, but even that turns out to be part of messing with Amy. I found it intriguing.
And now the really small trivia:
Pull to open. Thank you.
Bunk beds are cool. I’m telling you, the Doctor is SO eleven (years old.) Though Eleven-Year-Old Me would like to insert that bunk beds are only cool when you get the top bed and anyone who disagrees has surely never been on school trips. And if the Doctor is eleven then he knows this as well and the bunk beds in the TARDIS are obviously inter-dimensional bunk beds with a second top bed in the place of the bottom one. Just so you know.
The old console room. Was it the secondary console? It was flabbergasting, anyway.
And now for Big Damn Spoiler Time.
The only water in the forest is the river.
D’you know, that’s one of the Dream Lord Teasers! Which is weird, because knowing Gaiman I’d honestly been expecting the Biblical ones. River Song, I presume. Still, what the fuck.
My apologies for being even more disorganised and incoherent than usually. I’m awfully tired and I’ve got a headache. It’s only lucky I’m weeks late and there’s virtually no chance of anyone else reading this.* Cheers and apologies for the incoherence, Future Me! You lucky bastard, you live in the future. Though I guess it’s not much different from the present. But perhaps it holds ice-cream or whatever. Shame you can’t write back, really. Kinda sad.
*Not to mention me being able to come back here and patch up mistakes and omissions and whatnots any time. Just like the piratey one. Four edits. I could get used to this.
Well, well, one (two-parter) left and I’m back on track with the mid-series finale.
Well now. Second in the series of Episodes of Last Month, The Doctor’s Wife. A very fun episode written by Tim Burton. Or Neil Gaiman? One of them. Wait, let’s see, there WAS Helena Bonham Carter. But no Johnny Depp. So I think it was Gaiman.
Maggots.
Where are the maggots?
Eh, the Tim Burton joke looked funny in my head. Anyway, what we have here, is a thoroughly fantastic concept. The TARDIS talking. We’ve been watching the adventures of the man and the box for almost fifty years and now we finally get to hear the box’s take on them. Neil Gaiman practically redefined the relationship of Doctor and TARDIS.
First, he made her a she. I mean, she’s always been a she. Or something. But mostly she was an it. She definitely started out as an it, and her itness was still lingering about, despite all the redesigning of her as a living thing and the Doctor basically treating her as a living person. And now we’ve actually heard her talk and know she’s not only sentient, not even only knowing what’s going on around her, but has been an active protagonist all along. And she looks sorta like Helena Bonham Carter.
The thing is, her style was in fact very appropriate. Her gothic outfit seemed to match the Doctor’s vintage tweeds in outlandishness. And the TARDIS trying to focus on one moment in the space-time continuum was not only clever but absolutely hilarious. And somewhat spoilery, of course.
And even without maggots, it was obviously a Neil Gaiman production, just by looking at the sets. The junkyard. In 1963 we first met the TARDIS in a junkyard. In 2011 we first heard the TARDIS speak in another. But this junkyard is a lot more bizarre. A junkyard outside the universe, in the middle of nothing, a junkyard that turns out to be a cemetery of TARDISes. And there’s Uncle, Aunt and Nephew. This episode being centred on the TARDIS talking, I think we’d even have accepted a couple of guinea pigs or a folding chair as side characters, but instead, we got some quite intriguing ones.
First of all, Nephew. An Ood. An actual Ood. An Ood with green eyes! OK, it was probably the House’s mind control or whatever, but Ood look awesome with green eyes. Worse than red, that eerie green glow. I wonder whether he was there because Gaiman loved the Ood or this is supposed to be part of some grand design?
Next up, Aunt and Uncle. I thought they were brilliant. Yes, they were a couple of Igors, but they were very amusing Igors.
This crazy little team, the green-eyed Ood, the Igors and the goth girl in the junkyard in the middle of nothing all made the episode’s atmosphere feel a lot more fantasy than shiny sci-fi. Eldritch fantasy, if you catch my drift. Something ancient, dangerous and bodiless is hunting for TARDISes and has been for millenia, perhaps eons. Sure, a talking asteroid. Have you seen it? We’ve seen an ominous green glow and heard a voice speaking through others. We’ve seen its manservant being an Ood, a creature that debuted as the servant of another ancient threat, the Devil itself. We’re getting glimpses of Time Lords, the Big Damn Ancient Wise-men, being lured there by the House and killed and chopped up and distributed to the Igors.
And he steals the TARDIS.
Which is another major thing in the history of Doctor Who. The TARDIS is the safe point. The haven. The shelter. The universal police box symbolising order. And the ordinary. Actors change, sets change, companions change, but the TARDIS is constant. Fifty years ago the TARDIS was a safe point in any strange and scary story because it was a police box, now it’s because it’s the TARDIS. Moffat makes ordinary objects seem scary and extraordinary. Gaiman makes the most ordinary and safe thing in the history of Doctor Who scary and perilous. Here’s someone who knows what makes Doctor Who tick.
I’m afraid I’m done with Acting As If I Knew What’s Going on in Doctor Who, so here’s the trivia part.
Neil Gaiman is a fangirl. Proven. Such a fangirl. He’s just canonised Doctor/TARDIS. Next time I see a fanfiction with the Doctor having sex with the TARDIS, I can say, ‘Thank you, Neil.’ Not like fangirls hadn’t written such fanfictions before, but it’s nice to have a scapegoat.
In case you’re not quite convinced he’s a fangirl: the pretty one?
Talking about the companions. Nice chase scene. The pointlessness made it remarkable. For fun, sir. Though there was this one thing... no, not Rory not dying again, I’ve already presented my views on the issue in my last scribble, but the mind tricks. OK, well, it is about Rory dying in a way. You know, all along, Rory keeps telling the House is messing with their heads, but in fact, we don’t see him messing with Rory’s head much, do we? It’s all about Amy. Amy’s the one who gets to see Rory going insane and dying, the corridors go dark for Amy, Amy is being tricked into following a voice that’s not Rory’s. And something else I appear to have forgotten. We don’t see the House messing with Rory. Except for the first waiting-for-Amy-for-hours instance, but even that turns out to be part of messing with Amy. I found it intriguing.
And now the really small trivia:
Pull to open. Thank you.
Bunk beds are cool. I’m telling you, the Doctor is SO eleven (years old.) Though Eleven-Year-Old Me would like to insert that bunk beds are only cool when you get the top bed and anyone who disagrees has surely never been on school trips. And if the Doctor is eleven then he knows this as well and the bunk beds in the TARDIS are obviously inter-dimensional bunk beds with a second top bed in the place of the bottom one. Just so you know.
The old console room. Was it the secondary console? It was flabbergasting, anyway.
And now for Big Damn Spoiler Time.
The only water in the forest is the river.
D’you know, that’s one of the Dream Lord Teasers! Which is weird, because knowing Gaiman I’d honestly been expecting the Biblical ones. River Song, I presume. Still, what the fuck.
My apologies for being even more disorganised and incoherent than usually. I’m awfully tired and I’ve got a headache. It’s only lucky I’m weeks late and there’s virtually no chance of anyone else reading this.* Cheers and apologies for the incoherence, Future Me! You lucky bastard, you live in the future. Though I guess it’s not much different from the present. But perhaps it holds ice-cream or whatever. Shame you can’t write back, really. Kinda sad.
*Not to mention me being able to come back here and patch up mistakes and omissions and whatnots any time. Just like the piratey one. Four edits. I could get used to this.
Well, well, one (two-parter) left and I’m back on track with the mid-series finale.